Transitioning Indian Cities into Circular Economy: A Municipal Solid Waste Management Perspective
The Indian economy's rapid expansion has resulted in a slew of social and environmental externalities, including population growth, political tensions, rapid urbanisation, food and water scarcity, pollution, and climate change. By 2050, half of India’s population is expected to be living in cities, and the municipal solid waste volume is expected to triple to about 436 million metric tons (Fiksel, Sanjay, & Raman, 2020). With India experiencing this unprecedented economic dynamism and a rapidly growing population, the nation stands at the edge of profound choices about the path to future development (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2016).”With India drifting towards making attempts to tackle climate change and reduce the carbon footprint, and with its cities being the growth engines driving towards rapid urbanisation, it is becoming crucial to re-examine the linear working of our cities and make an attempt to transition it into a closed loop mechanism by addressing the different kinds of waste and its management by urban local bodies. This study delves into understanding the practices in circularity and waste management along with strengthening and applying the circular economy framework designed to assess the level of circularity of Indian cities in term of municipal waste generated and the sectors of waste stream a city needs to focus on to achieve better levels of circularity.
